Chapter 380

After a moment's hesitation, Lu wassalman said: "Simon, it's impossible to completely exempt the exit fee, and the board of directors will not agree, but we can discuss the specific amount carefully."

Simon wasn't going to waste too much time on it, saying, "well, 50 million dollars, fixed number."

50 million US dollars, for most ordinary people, is a huge sum of money, but for Simon, the money is nothing.

The exit fee negotiated by MCA and Panasonic is 2.5% of the final turnover of both sides. If the market value of MCA is close to US $6 billion in the near future, once Panasonic abandons the acquisition, it needs to pay US $150 million exit fee, which is roughly equivalent to the net profit of MCA in half a year.

Wassalman originally thought that the exit fee of danielis entertainment could be set at 1% to 2%, which was a big concession. Hearing that Simon was only willing to give a fixed fee of $50 million, he shook his head and said, "Simon, this number is too low."

Simon insisted: "you want me to get involved in this as soon as possible, Lou. That's the price that has to be paid."

Vassalman thought again and said, "well, it must be made public in advance."

Simon shook his head: "no, after signing the agreement of intent, Denise entertainment will start the feasibility investigation of MCA acquisition, and will not really start the acquisition immediately."

Vassalman's mouth was drawn. The feasibility study, who would believe that danilisi entertainment has not even finished the pre work?

However, we all know that this is just a pretext, and vassalman did not refute it.

The two continued to haggle for a while, and Simon barely raised the exit fee to $60 million, roughly equivalent to 1% of MCA's current market value. Danielis entertainment will sign an agreement of intent with MCA within one week to investigate and evaluate the feasibility of acquiring MCA. MCA needs to cooperate and actively provide necessary internal assets and financial data.

At the same time, although the matter needs to be kept secret, MCA can inform Panasonic of the official participation of danilisi entertainment in the bidding.

Send Simon to leave in person. Vassalman returns to his office just now. MCA president Sid simberg has appeared. Seeing vassalman nodding, simberg knows that Simon has confirmed his entry and asks, "Lu, have you discussed the management right of the company with westero?"

After a serious illness three years ago, Lu wassalman finally showed his intention to retire, which is why he will agree to sell the company he has controlled for decades.

However, the deeper the power is immersed, the more difficult it is to put it down.

After a few years, because of his better health, vassalman's idea of retiring gradually faded. Among the acquisition conditions discussed by Panasonic and MCA, it is very important to maintain the existing management's control over the company.

Compared with Lu wassalman, who is 77 years old, Sid schinberg, who is only 55 years old, does not want to give up his power.

Lou wassalman shook his head, sat down slowly behind his desk, and said, "a friend of mine in Washington called me yesterday morning and said it was owitz. They were networking to try to stop danielis Entertainment's acquisition of MCA. I asked owitz myself this morning, and he admitted

Ronald Reagan used to be a signing artist under MCA in his early years, so vassalman also had good connections in politics.

Sid schinberg was a bit surprised by the news. He forgot the question and said subconsciously, "we can't let owitz sabotage this acquisition."

"Of course," wassalman said, gesturing simberg to sit down opposite him. "I've already warned him. However, if I choose between Panasonic and danielis, I prefer to sell the MCA to Panasonic. Do you understand why? "

Sid simbergella took a chair and sat opposite vassalman. After thinking about it, he quickly nodded: "if the company is acquired by Denise entertainment, westrow will probably not let us continue to run MCA."

"It's not very likely, it will not," wassalman said. "Once vestero gets MCA, he will definitely integrate danielis and MCA. Many businesses of our company just complement danielis. Westero has built a very good management team in recent years, and he will not be able to stay with us at all

Sid schinberg quickly cleared up vassalman's thinking.

Vassalman urged danelis entertainment to join the bid, which could force Panasonic to raise its offer.

Then, owitz made a move at the right time to exclude danielis entertainment, so that he could sell the MCA to Panasonic smoothly. Although he changed the shareholders, the MCA would continue to be in the hands of his own management.

Vassalman saw a clear expression on Sid schinberg's face and added with some serenity: "besides, Hollywood has always been ours, westero. Anyway, it's just an outsider. I don't believe that the other companies will give up completely just because of the interests of one or two films to stop the continued expansion of daenerys entertainment. ""We" here naturally means Jews.

No matter what the shareholders behind the scenes are, the real power of the studio itself is basically Jewish. Lu wassalman, Sid schinberg, Steve Ross, Barry Diller, Shirley Lansing, Peter Cooper, and so on.

Even Amy Pascal, it's the same.

Therefore, Hollywood is a Jewish Hollywood, which few people would object to.

The Jewish community in charge of Hollywood is bound to instinctively resist a non Jewish controlling more and more power.

Simon westero is just a man of unknown origin. Although there was a surname that could show his ethnic origin before westero, no one knew whether it was true or false, so no one knew what his ethnic origin was.

In fact, the traditional and conservative western countries, different groups of people, have always attached great importance to this problem.

The unconfirmed rumor that a certain American president will be more or less related to the British royal family is actually the best proof of this.

Simon westero's rise is so fast that people are dizzying. However, no one will be too slow to respond to this MCA acquisition.

Although westero did not exclude Jews and other racial tendencies in the process of running danielis entertainment, he was not a Jew after all, or did not publicly admit that he was a Jew.

Although the Jews in Hollywood do not necessarily know the oriental culture, they understand a common truth.

If you are not of my race, your heart will be different.

Sid simbergs didn't think there was anything wrong with vassalman's words. He asked, "Lew, owitz, what are you going to do?"

……

Simon doesn't know what Lou wassalman is thinking. When he returns to danielis studios, he tells Amy and others to officially start contacting MCA.

By signing the agreement of intent as soon as possible, we can not only determine the exit cost of US $60 million, but also formally ask MCA for some internal assets and financial data that could not be obtained before, so that the acquisition team can adjust the original acquisition plan properly.

At the end of the meeting with Amy and others, Simon returns to his office, and the female assistant follows in with a document.

"This is the information from New York. About David Merlot's bill restricting overseas enterprises from purchasing American assets, they will formally submit it to Congress next week. In addition, we have helped to contact the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post. They will follow up and report on the bill at the same time. "

Simon took the folder from his female assistant and sat behind his desk, looking down.

David Merlot, the last congressman Simon met at the Hurst party.

Although he broke up with the Hurst family and didn't feel that David Merlot's bill could win the support of Congress, Simon later told James Leibold to contact each other, and asked schlap consulting company funded by Westeros to follow up the matter and take the initiative to help David Merlot build momentum.

As long as it can cause certain pressure on Panasonic's acquisition of MCA, it is worth doing so.

In addition, once we worked together, Denise entertainment was able to establish contact with the congressman named David Merlot. Contacts have always been accumulated between you and me.

Because of the MCA acquisition has been fully prepared, just two days over the weekend, danelis entertainment quietly signed an agreement of intent with MCA.

Although MCA didn't disclose the matter to the media this time, due to the influence of danilisi Entertainment's official entry, Panasonic withdrew a quotation from last week and began to negotiate with MCA again.

As a result of this change, the MCA acquisition is destined to wait until at least the end of October, which is exactly what Simon wants.

To get this done, Simon flew to Melbourne as planned on the new Monday of October 15.

For several days in a row, he spent time with Jane de bond and others in the old abandoned factory in the western suburb of Melbourne. Although he was very satisfied with most of the samples shot by de bond, Simon still found a lot of scenes that needed to be shot, partly for technical reasons and partly for the lens The effect is not very satisfactory.

However, the remake work did not start immediately. Instead, it was scheduled for three months later, that is, next January.

By that time, the rough cut and special effects shots of Batman: The Dark Knight will be basically completed, and the details of the remake can be confirmed more accurately, so as to save the budget.

Due to the great success of the first song, the budget of Batman: the dark knight is actually unlimited as long as necessary, but Simon has always paid close attention to this issue. With strict and meticulous planning, the final budget of the project can be controlled within the planned 80 million US dollars, even if the two-week supplementary shooting is included.In the course of Simon's stay in Melbourne, Panasonic submitted an offer to MCA again after urgent weighing, raising the overall purchase price to US $6.5 billion, which is equivalent to the transaction price in Simon's memory.

Perhaps the news of danilisi Entertainment's official entry inevitably leaked. This week, MCA's share price also rose significantly again.

In line with this trend, it is only a matter of time before MCA's market value exceeds the $7 billion price ceiling in Simon's plan.

The only thing to be thankful for is that, compared with Columbia Pictures' huge debt of more than one billion US dollars, MCA, which has been operating very well, has almost negligible debt ratio. Although it is impossible to do so, it is basically operating liabilities such as short-term accounts payable notes, and there is no large bank loan.

Johnston's mansion on the outskirts of Melbourne.

It's already October 20, Saturday, and tomorrow I'm going to return to Los Angeles. Simon specially came here today to have dinner with us. Because of some things in North America, Janet didn't come to Australia with Simon this time.

It's still a big family. Anthony johnstons, Norman johnstons, Patrick Johnston and Sara kiston, the johnstons who have been officially engaged recently at the old man's urging, naturally Veronica also came.

After dinner, Simon, the old man and the eldest two come to the study together. Patrick thinks that since he is a Johnston man, he should have the right to listen in. But before the joke is over, he becomes a quail after being stared at by the old man.

"Starting the acquisition of the two companies at the same time may avoid excessive fanaticism in some markets, but Simon, have you considered the capital pressure in the later stage? I mean, not only the repayment pressure in the future, but also the funds needed by the two companies to further develop themselves, especially Bell Atlantic. If the telecom industry wants to expand, the investment has always been very huge. Although it is only a regional telecom company, if you want to develop new Internet access services, only the infrastructure investment, it will cost about one billion US dollars How about the yuan level? "

In the study, Raymond Johnston obviously knew Simon's recent trend like the palm of his hand, and asked in an obviously negative way as soon as he opened his mouth.

Simon naturally thought about these issues.

With the current accumulation of westero system, with the profits of danilisi entertainment in the next few years, the planned sale of some technology stock assets and the cash flow of the two target enterprises after the acquisition, it is not a problem to support the debt repayment in the next three to five years.

Further, after the Gulf War next year, the US economy will recover. All kinds of other assets held by westero system will increase rapidly in the next few years.

In memory, in 1995, the market value of Microsoft and Intel will reach about $50 billion.

With westrow holding 20% and 15% shares in Microsoft and Intel respectively, the value of these shares is expected to reach US $17.5 billion at that time. If necessary, Simon can fully relieve his financial pressure by cashing out part of his assets.

After giving a general account of his plan, the old man frowned even tighter and said, "it's stupid to hope that the U.S. economy will get better. Bush is not a president who cares about the domestic economy. He is still planning to drag the United States into another war. You should check what the American economy was like during the Vietnam War. If he succeeds in re-election, the US economic situation will only continue to deteriorate, and it is impossible for him to get better. "